


until these thoughts leave my head

by orphan_account



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Bodyswap, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-10-25
Updated: 2013-10-25
Packaged: 2017-12-30 10:09:43
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,048
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1017345
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In which Harry and Louis switch bodies.</p>
            </blockquote>





	until these thoughts leave my head

Everything begins with one of those stupid articles on the internet.

"Did you guys know me and Rihanna hooked up?" Harry asks, his eyes on the laptop screen.

"Really?" Niall sounds interested, but not enough to tear his gaze away from the video game he and Liam are playing.

"Well I don't know actually, but we should ask entertainmentwise dot com."

"Oh, here we go," Louis says, annoyed.

"And what is that supposed to mean?" Harry asks with a raised eyebrow.

"I'm just saying you should stop acting like you have it worse than everyone else."

"Louis," Zayn says as a warning.

"That's not what I meant, though," Harry mutters.

"No, it's not, but it's what you were implying."

"So, you're telling me I have no right of complaining in front of my four best friends? Great."

"No one's saying that Harry and, Louis, could you stop treating Harry like shit just because you're in a bad mood?, thanks" Liam says as he pauses the game to give Louis a stern look.

"That’s a fair comment but in the future I’d rather you fuck off." Louis snaps "Honestly Liam, Harry's old enough to defend himself."

The room falls silent. It's the first time something like this has ever happened, the five of them usually get along just fine and their fights are always over insignificant things, especially when those fights are between Harry and Louis.

"What I'm saying is," Louis continues "I read annoying comments every single day, and I have to deal with fans threatening my family, and have you ever heard me complaining about it?. No, 'cause I did everything I could to fix it and..."

"Louis," Harry interrupts "your ways of handling those situations are obviously different than mine, next time I feel like complaining I'll just make sure you aren't present. I'm truly sorry for bothering you."

He focus his attention on the screen again, ignoring the burn of Louis' gaze on his back.

 

~

 

The following day, Louis wakes up with a terrible stomach ache that he identifies as guilt.

He knows he should apologize to Harry for being a total dick last night, but just as he's about to go to find him, Louis notices he isn't even in his own room and that, apparently, it's possible to grow a few inches taller in just one night.

Oh and the curls, those are new as well.

"What the fuck," he says out loud and okay that is definitely not his voice.

What.

The.

Actual.

Fuck.

He runs to the bathroom, splashes some water on his face and raises his head slowly and what he sees in the mirror makes him scream so loud he figures the whole hotel must have heard him.

The reflection staring at him is obviously himself but it's actually not himself because he is pretty sure he is Louis Tomlinson and not Harry Styles.

It's honestly kind of weird having to have those wide green eyes staring at him in the mirror, well, not that he isn't used to have Harry Styles staring at him since that has always seemed to be a thing of theirs, to be constantly aware of what the other is doing. Anyways, back to the point, Louis is absolutely freaking out and it shows on his— no, Harry's face.

His expression is so unlike Harry, who's always a ball of sunshine and laughter. The weirdest part, Louis thinks, is to have so much hair. He shakes his head, like that will actually make it go away, but what he gets instead is some of it in his mouth. He stares at his hand and traces the 'I can't change tattoo' with his fingers and yes, it also feels weird that all most of his tattoos are suddenly on his left arm instead of the right one. He lets his fingers trail the butterfly tattoo's shape on his torso and then he raises them slowly to the swallows above his pecs.

"I'm Harry Styles," he says, like Harry's voice is just a new toy he's playing with.

He starts rubbing absently his nipples and oh they're a lot more sensitive than his own and in fact, they get hard after a few seconds and what the fuck, jesus christ his nipples aren't the only thing that's started hardening.

"No wonder he seems to be doing it all the time then."

And okay yeah, manipulating Harry's body like this may seem interesting but Louis isn't a dick and besides, Harry wouldn't be okay with it.

Probably.

Louis gets out of the room, hoping no one sees him and he stands in front of his hotel room or, well, at least the one he is at least seventy percent sure it's his. He knocks the door softly and waits.

"Comin'," he hears his own voice saying.

Harry is probably too sleepy to notice the obvious changes in himself and Louis really hopes he won't yell when he sees him. The door opens slowly and he holds his breath, letting it out as he is faced with a pair of blue eyes staring at him with confussion.

There's silence for a few seconds and then,

"Mum never told me I had a twin brother."

And, really, Louis can't even contain his laughter because only Harry Styles would come up with such theory.

"Your twin brother, uh? Isn't it funny we both have the same tattoos? And, is it me or you got smaller?"

Harry let's out a soft 'oh.'

"Yeah," Louis says. "Oh."

"I must be dreaming then."

Louis hits him on the forehead to prove him wrong.

"Ow."

Harry doesn't speak for a bit until,

"Louis?"

"Yes I'm... wait, what the fuck? How did you know it's me?"

"I know what your voice and mine sound like. I'm sleepy, not dumb."

Right.

"Can I come in?" he asks.

"Uh..." Harry seems uncertain for a few seconds and, god, it's so weird for Louis to see himself acting so slow when he's always full of energy, bouncing from one place to another, too fast for most people to keep up with. "I think so... yeah... It'd be okay, I guess..."

As soon as Louis gets into the room, he starts speed talking.

"I'm so sorry Harry, I really am, I shouldn't have said that yesterday, Liam was right, I was in a bad mood and I took it out on you and it's just... it's so frustrating to hear people saying all that stuff about you without actually knowing you and sometimes I get angry because what they say shouldn't affect you because you're much more than that, Harry, and you're just so young and you don't deserve any of that and, fuck, I'm the older one in this band, I should've acted more responsibly and—"

"Louis," Harry interrupts "I forgive you, but I need you stop talking for a second because I need to process all of this."

"Right, yeah, of course."

"I'll go to the bathroom now, please stay here I just need to... shit," and with that Harry leaves Louis alone again.

He decides to lie on Harry's bed or... is it his own bed? or is it Louis' bed? But he is Louis, right? Or maybe he actually isn't because Louis doesn't have curls and Harry clearly isn't Louis because Harry and him are totally different and wow okay let's just stop that train of thought because it definitely won't take Louis anywhere.

He tries to find some help on the internet but, after a few minutes of scrolling down some shady websites, he decides against it. Besides, lighting up some candles and drawing a star on the wall don't sound like something that could fix this.

"Okay," Harry says as he comes out of the bathroom, "I think I know what's going on," he finishes, sitting besides Louis on the bed.

"I think it's pretty clear, Harold, I am you and you are me or... something like that."

Harry rolls his eyes and for a second his face actually looks like Louis Louis.

"That's not what I mean, you twat, I just think I know why it happened."

"I'm all ears."

"Okay well, remember our fight yesterday?" Louis nods "I think this the universe or whatever trying to teach us a lesson like... maybe we shouldn't judge other people because we don't know what it's like to be in their shoes."

"That's pretty bizarre, don't you think?" Harry shrugs. "But it's more than nothing so."

Suddenly there's a loud knock at the door.

"Louis, you in there?"

Niall.

Fuck.

Louis hits Harry in the arm.

"Ouch! You've done that twice by now, asshole."

"Shhhhhhh," Louis hushes him "just answer, would you? my voice doesn't really sound like my own at this moment."

"Right uh... I'm coming!"

He opens the door and Niall frowns at him.

"What are you doing here? You should be in Harry's room! You promised you would apologize..." his eyes land on Louis "Oh hey there Harry"

"Hello," Louis blurts out.

"Sooooo..." Niall casually says entering to the hotel room, "I guess you guys kissed and made up already, right?"

"Yes, yes, yep, uh... Louis right there apologized to me," Louis rushes out, "because I am Harry and I was really mad at Louis because he acted like a dick to me yesterday."

Harry covers his face with his hands.

"Okay, Harry, calm down, I think I'd never heard you talking that fast in your whole life."

Neither of them answer.

"Guys, what's the matter with both of you?"

"Niall," Harry starts, and, fuck no.

No, no, no, no, no, no.

"I'm Harry," and honestly, fuck him and his incapability of lying.

"Right," Niall speaks like he's actually taking him seriously "and I'm Zayn," he says doing a poor imitation of Zayn's pouty face.

Louis wants to laugh but he feels like he's going to cry instead.

"Louis, help me out a little?"

And yeah, Louis may not be incapable of lying but he is incapable of saying no to Harry.

 

Niall told Harry and Louis that the only way of making him believe their story, was that Harry should tell him 'that secret that just both of them knew'.

"You don't like getting head because when your first girlfriend did it she threw up all over your dick," had been Harry's answer.

Convincing Liam hadn't been hard at all. In fact, after finding out, he decided to make a list of every bodyswap-themed movie he could think of (although, Louis believes Liam included The Parent Trap on it so it probably won't help at all).

Zayn was skeptical at first, but after Louis had threatened to 'kick his ass if he didn't believe them' he changed his mind, muttering something like 'Harry wouldn't say that.'

So there they were now, all together in Louis' room trying to figure out what to do.

"Okay, our next concert is in two days... this will probably be over before that," Liam says.

"Probably, probably," Louis mimics him, "but what if it isn't, Liam?"

"Well at least you guys know which parts of our songs the other sings, right?"

"Yes, sure!" Louis nods enthusiastically, "you do the 'ow!' in Heart Attack, right Harry?"

Zayn groans.

"No Louis! Niall does that. I do the 'ow' in Best Song Ever." Harry corrects him.

"Right."

They decide to call room service to order breakfast and when it arrives, they end up eating it in bed together while watching Freaky Friday.

 

After watching two more movies Louis, kicks everyone but Harry out.

"Okay Harold, here's the thing. I think we need to establish a few rules."

"Rules?"

"Yeah, rules." Louis says seriously. "Okay, rule number one. No one else can know."

"Okay," Harry nods.

"Harry, this is really important! It's the golden rule, okay? No one, not even your mum."

"Can I tell her when everything gets back to normal?" Harry asks, pouting.

Louis smiles fondly, "Yes, Harry, you can."

Harry stares at him with narrowed eyes.

"Do I look like that when...?"

"When...?"

"When I'm looking at you."

Louis freezes.

"Well, I don't know how your face looks like right now, so."

Harry stays silent.

"Okay, rule number two..."

"Don't have sex with anyone," Harry blurts out.

"What?"

"You're not allowed to have sex with people in my body, Louis, that's rule number two," Harry says, his head down, staring intently at his own lap.

"Okay. Same goes for you then."

"Won't be a problem," Harry mutters.

"Are you insinuating I'm ugly, sunshine?"

"No, no, no... of course not, Louis I—"

"Harry, I'm kidding! God, you're being sort of weird today."

He doesn't answer but it's not like Louis was expecting him to.

"You're allowed to wank of course, but no watching though."

Harry raises an eyebrow.

"I mean, I know I'm hot Harry, but I would still like some privacy, you know?"

"Well you can look if you want," Harry tells him.

Louis' eyes widen because okay fuck and mental images and he's your best friend goddamnit.

Harry just smirks.

 

~

 

Nothing has changed the following day and the boys decide to start rehearsing immediately, in order to prepare Harry and Louis in case they still haven't switched by the day of the concert.

Harry has some trouble figuring out how to sing the "my body fails, I'm on my knees, praying" part in More Than This and Louis can't really imitate Harry's moves during Rock Me, but they end up learning the basic stuff.

Just when they're about to leave, one of their bodyguards comes up to them saying, "some fans found out you guys are here."

They let out a collective groan.

"We'll get out by the back door but one of you has to stay for a little bit." When none of them answers he adds, "It'll be just five minutes."

"I'll do it," Harry says.

"Louis," Louis says as he puts his hand on Harry's chest, "let me do it."

Harry gapes, "Are you sure? I mean I can totally do it I swear I don't—"

"Louis," he interrupts him, "you can leave, I'll be fine."

 

Louis arrives to the hotel two hours later than the other four, feeling more tired than he's ever felt in his whole life.

Half of the fans hadn't been so bad, just asking for a picture or an autograph, and then leaving with a quiet 'thank you', but others had pushed and yelled at him and some even tugged his hair, which made him feel angry, annoyed and sort of confused, because Harry usually is the one who stays behind to do it but Louis has never heard him complaining.

He feels so tired he'll just take a shower and go straight to bed. After he's done drying himself up, he puts on some boxers, and figures he has enough energy to watch an episode of Game of Thrones.

When the credits start rolling Louis notices that he's hard (probably because of how he had been absently rubbing himself while staring at the screen), he isn't really in the mood to make it last, and he decides he'll just do it quickly to finally be able to get some rest.

Louis puts his laptop away while he takes his boxers off, making sure he has some tissues to clean himself up on the nightstand, and starts. He isn't thinking about anyone in particular as his hand moves up and down naturally.

That's when he realizes there's a mirror on the ceiling and what he sees in it leaves him breathless.

Harry's body looks obscene like this. His long and lean legs slightly parted, his skin shiny with sweat, his right hand wrapped around himself and the other one resting on the pillow besides his head. His cheeks slightly pink, his mouth slack, and his eyes bleary.

He starts stroking himself again, without tearing his gaze away, and only a few seconds pass by before he's coming all over his stomach.

 

~

 

"Harry, are you feeling okay?" Lou asks Louis as she hits him lightly on the head with a brush.

"Uh... yeah... I think so... Why?"

"I don't know it's... you just seem out of it."

And, yeah, Louis sort of is because he just can't keep the image of Harry naked and hard and moaning and coming out of his head.

"Sorry, I'm feeling kinda slower than usual."

"Harold," he hears Harry saying, "don't talk about you like that, you're perfect."

"Awww," Lou coos, "that's adorable, Louis, but try not to say it so often, it'll go to his head."

"Well, let's be honest," Harry says as he stands in front of a full length mirror, "it's not like he has any defects."

"Oh Louis, I'm flattered, but I do have a lot of defects like, my feet are smelly and my bum is really flat."

Harry fakes a grin.

"Well everyone's bum seems flat compared to mine because you see," he says as he turns around, grabbing each cheek with a different hand, "I have like the fattest arse on earth."

"What are you even saying? You have the better ass of the world, Louis, I'd do you."

"Well, in my opinion you're like a million times hotter than me," Harry says walking slowly towards Louis, "I'd do you as well."

"Come on, Louis," he looks down at Harry, "you deserve someone much better than me."

"Uh," Lou says as she stares at them with a mix of confusion and amusement, "you two are really fucking weird."

 

The first part of the concert goes smoothly which makes Louis feel a little more relaxed, until it's time to answer the twitter questions.

"Harry, do your best Louis impression," Liam says into the microphone, staring at the screen with the question on it.

"Uhhh... I'm a bit slow... but I'll try..."

Part of the crowd laughs and Louis hears his own voice coming from Harry saying, "You can do it Harry, you're actually great at doing impressions."

Louis hears some a few 'awwws' y rolls his eyes, hating himself for what he's about to do.

He stoops a little, trying to make himself look shorter and then, with an exaggeratedly high voice he shouts, "Have you quite finished?" on the microphone, making the crowd roar with laughter.

A few minutes pass by, but even after they find the girl in the crowd that sent that tweet and after Zayn answers the 'which was the last book you read?' question, Harry hasn't stopped laughing.

Okay then.

"If you had to choose a song to describe yourself, which would it be?" Niall reads out loud "good question... Harry?"

"Hard choice Nialler but," Louis doubts for a few seconds, "Mambo number five."

Niall laughs loudly and Louis think he hears Zayn doing that as well, until Liam says, "I think I don't know that one."

"Oh... you know Liam," Louis says grinning mischievously, "a little bit of Monica in my life, a little bit of Erica by my side, a little bit of Rita is all I need." he sings.

"Oh! I know that one," Liam perks up, smiling now.

Then Louis risks a glance at Harry and when he sees him frowning and chewing his lower lip Louis thinks that yeah maybe he did go a little bit too far, but that's what Harry gets for laughing at him.

 

~

 

Louis wakes up to the sound of his phone alarm at 7am. He has an hour left to have breakfast and then he has to go straight to the tour bus to go to god-knows-where (honestly, all of them have been in so many different places in the last three years that Louis has lost track long ago).

He takes his phone, avoiding his mum's worried messages, ("i haven't heard your voice in like a week :(", "why won't you answer my calls? are you mad at me?") logs into Twitter and is welcomed by two alarming worldwide trends. The first one, 'Louis & Taylor' and the fourth, '#LaylorIsReal'.

What the fuck.

He clicks on the first one to find out why it trended and the only explanation he finds is a video posted by Harry's official twitter which counts with almost 400.000 retweets.

When Louis clicks play he sees someone taking a shower behind a curtain. Nothing happens for a few seconds until the person starts singing the lyrics of We're Never Getting Back Together with a really high and annoying voice.

That's when he recognizes the person's voice as his and fuck Harry actually took a video of himself in Louis' body taking a shower and posted it on Twitter just to make fun of him.

'you're gonna pay for this, styles'  he tweets.

 

A few hours later the five of them are squeezed in a couch playing FIFA and Louis decides it's time to get his revenge. He waits until Liam starts playing against Harry.

"Niall," he says, trying to sound casual, "I need you to help me with something, bring your guitar," and Niall follows him without a second thought.

Louis makes sure Harry hasn't taken his eyes away from the screen before leaving the room.

"Okay Niall, you know what our dear Harold did today."

"The Taylor thing?"

"Exactly," Louis nods as he throws an arm over Niall's shoulders, "and you know that it's only fair that I get my revenge."

Niall laughs but he is nodding as he does it.

"Well, you're gonna help me, right?" he asks, taking a step away from Niall.

"Yeah, sure."

"Well go and get me a sharpie then," Louis tells him.

Then he starts taking his shirt off.

"Louis, why are you...? What's the guitar for?"

"No questions," Louis says, shirtless now, "just do as I say."

Niall rolls his eyes but does it anyway.

When he gets back Louis is nowhere to be seen.

"Uh... Louis?" he tries.

"Up here," Louis says from one of the top bunks.

He's lying down on it when Niall climbs up and he sits on Louis knees since there's obviously not enough room for both.

"Okay, what do I have to do now?" Niall asks.

"Well first you're going to draw a pair of tits on my chest," Niall raises a single eyebrow. "God, how many times do I have to tell you that you should just do what I say and stop questioning me."

"Okay, okay, don't get your knickers in a twist," Niall says as he starts doing what Louis requested.

When he's done Louis speaks again, "now write 'milk me' underneath."

Niall snorts but does it anyways.

"Now write 'I' on my forehead," Niall does it "now draw a heart on my left cheek," Niall does it "now draw a dick on the right one."

"You're an asshole," Niall says, but does it anyway.

"Okay, now take a picture with my phone and I'll post it on twitter."

 

Louis washes his face off and after making sure it looks perfectly clean, he goes back to his bunk. He falls asleep after a few minutes, but he is woken up by someone pinning him to the bed and holding his wrists.

"You're a fucking twat, did you know that?" Harry tells him with a toothy grin.

Louis rolls his eyes, "You're not the first person that tells me that and you're certainly not going to be the last, Harold."

Harry starts running his hands up Louis' sides making him squirm and giggle helplessly.

"Harry, Harry, Harry!" he whines as he feels his eyes filling up with tears, "Harry stop please!"

When he realizes Harry isn't planning on stopping anytime soon, he remembers his body is bigger now and, using Harry's body strength he flips their positions, ending up on top of him, both panting a little.

Harry looks away and says, "What you did at the concert was unfair."

"Harry it was a joke—"

"They don't care Louis! I've seen like three articles talking about it already, and you know how much those rumours bother me. Especially cause the last time I actually was with someone was like months ago."

I'm glad Louis thinks, "Well I didn't know they bothered you so much, I mean, you've never done anything to try to stop them," he says instead.

"Well it's not your fucking business" Harry yells and okay Louis had never seen Harry so angry. Harry closes his eyes, taking a deep breath "I'm actually angry is because I want my body back."

"Harry."

"I want to be able to go out and meet people and hang out with my friends and I'm supposed to meet Gemma in a few days and if I don't get my body back by then I don't know how long it'll be until I can see her again."

Louis hates when this kind of things happen because when Harry feels bad, Louis feels bad. That had been what happened with the Red or Black performance, those comments Harry had read about himself had made him feel so sad he had locked himself up in a room without letting anyone in, not even Louis. He had felt so powerless back then he decided something like that would never happen to Harry again, and he would always try to help him if something was bothering or scaring him.

"Harry I... I won't lie, I don't know when this is going to end but I promise I won't make that kind of jokes anymore and I'll be here for you until everything goes back to normal." A huge smile spreads across Harry's face and god Louis' gonna end up killing himself, "Stop smiling like that, you're making m' face look dumb."

Louis is pretty sure his own expression can't be really that different than Harry's.

"Everyone always tells me I look dumb when I'm looking at you anyways," Harry tells him quietly.

Louis feels his heart pounding furiously in his chest and he hopes Harry won't notice, "Can we cuddle?"

"You know I'm always up for that."

"Good," Louis says, glad they aren't talking about Harry's face anymore, "I'll be the big spoon then."

"Yes, you better take advantage of your size while you still can," Harry mumbles as he turns around.

Louis presses his chest again Harry's back and then whispers into his ear "If you weren't in my body I would've punched you in the face."

Harry yaws, "We both know that's a lie."

Louis chuckles and falls asleep to the thought of yeah, of course it was.

 

Harry wakes up a couple of hours later when he hears someone calling out his name.

"Harry come on, wake up, I'm calling Gemma and Anne."

He opens his eyes and sees Louis sitting beside him with his laptop on his legs.

"What," he groans, his voice raspy.

Then he sees their faces on the screen.

"Hello darling," Anne says, staring at Louis with a soft smile.

Louis coughs, "Hi An... err— mum," he says with a raspy voice, "I'm feeling kind of sick and my throat hurts when I talk so, it'll probably easier if you both speak to Louis instead of me."

Harry frowns because Louis had been just fine the other day during the concert.

Then he realizes Louis is doing it so he can talk to his family face-to-face. Harry beams and mouths 'thank you' to Louis.

"Hello Louis," Anne tells him.

"Hi," Harry answers, finding it weird not to call her 'mum' after.

"So, how's Harry been doing lately?" Gemma asks, smirking.

"Uh, you know... he's okay, well, not really cause he's sick but... yeah."

Gemma laughs, "Stop spending so much time with him, you're going to end up talking like him."

Louis snorts, "That could never happen, you're too smart for that, aren't you, Louis?"

"Hush you, talking's not good for your voice , remember?" Harry tells him, putting his hand on Louis' throat.

"Awww," Anne coos, "I'm really glad you're taking good care of him, Louis."

Harry blushes and hides his face on his hands, "He's not a baby," he mumbles.

"Yes I am," Louis says, pouting.

Harry squeezes Louis' cheeks hard, giving him a fake smile.

"So..." says Anne, "How's the tour going so far? Did something interesting happen? Has another fan hidden in a bin or something?"

Harry chuckles, "No, but one showed up at Zayn's door with five puppies and she told us we all should take care of one."

Louis laughs, "Liam almost keeps his."

"Yeah, until he remembered he had one back home and he got scared both dogs wouldn't like each other."

"Yeah," Louis says before yawning loudly and putting his head on Harry's shoulder, "and someone thought it'd be funny to throw a water balloon on stage, and then Niall slipped and nearly twisted his ankle."

Anne and Gemma don't say anything, both just stare at them with a knowing smile that Louis pointedly ignores.

"Do you want me to go to visit you on thursday or not, H?" Gemma asks.

"Yeah, yeah, of course, that's actually why I called." Louis says with a smile, "I'll take care of the airplane tickets."

"Right, well, I suppose we should go since it's pretty rude you're about to fall asleep as we talk."

"Sorry, sorry," Louis says, lifting his head from Harry's shoulder quickly, "it's not like you're boring me or—"

"Gemma is being the rude one here, love, we know your schedule must be really tiring. We'll talk later, okay?" Anne says, her smile honest.

"Okay, goodbye," Louis says waving his hand lazily "mum" he adds as an afterthought.

"Bye, have a good flight Gemma," Harry says as he closes the tab. He puts the laptop at the foot of the bed and then he pulls Louis into a tight hug. "Thank you, Louis," Harry whispers, his lips moving against his neck.

Louis feels his skin break out in goosebumps and knows that right there, with his chin resting on Harry's shoulder and Harry's hot breath on his neck, there's nowhere else he'd rather be.

"You're welcome," he responds softly.

 

~

 

Louis is bored and he wishes the interviewer would stop winking at him every five seconds.

"So, boys," she begins, "I was told you are making a documentary about your worldwide tour in 2014."

"That's right," Liam says (he's usually the one that answers the boring questions), "it'll be like a This is Us sequel, except it won't make it to the big screen."

"And why did you guys decide to do it?"

"Well, mostly because in the movie we basically just tour around Europe and Mexico, and we thought it was unfair for the rest of the fans out there. Like, they deserve to be acknowledged as well, you know?"

"Yeah," Harry says, nodding, "we wanna show them we're grateful cause we owe them so much."

"So, will you guys talk about your girlfriends this time? We've noticed that topic isn't even brought up in the film," she says and Louis rolls his eyes.

He's grateful it's a radio interview and that there aren't cameras around.

"I don't think so," Liam answers.

"Besides, it's not like we have a lot to talk about, you know? We're all single right now." Niall adds.

The interviewer looks at Louis with interest, "Is that right, Harry?" she asks him, blinking up at him, "Single, uh?"

"Yup," Louis nods, "and I'm not looking for anyone either."

"Oh, come on!" she tells him, faking a friendly smile, "I'm sure there has to be someone, Harry! A boy as handsome as you must have girls throwing themselves at you all the time."

Louis sighs, willing himself to calm down, "I am single. And it'd be nice if we could just stop talking about this, thank you."

"But, Harry!" she insists, ignoring him "I've read some rumours about you and—"

"Stop." Louis says, his tone firm, "respect my privacy, please."

The interviewer stares at him, bewildered, "Right, I'm sorry, that was inappropriate."

Louis nods and suddenly feels Harry's hand resting on his leg and giving it a little squeeze. He looks at him and sees Harry smiling thankfully and Louis can't help but smile right back.

 

~

 

"'Harry Styles is tired of rumours' hmm 'Respect my privacy! says Harry from One Direction' oh, also this one, 'Harry Styles speaks up'." Harry reads staring at his phone screen, "They're saying positive stuff."

"Don't you think they're gonna suspect something?" Niall asks.

"Niall please, the only person that would come up with such twisted theory would be Liam."

"Hey!" Liam protests as he kicks Louis under the table.

"Well it's true," Niall says, before gulping down his beer in one go, "let's call the waitress, I want another one."

"This is your third beer, Niall, and the food isn't even here yet... if you think she's hot, make up a better excuse. Ask her for her phone number the next time she comes, yeah? You're famous now, there's no way she's going to reject you," Louis tells him matter-of-factly.

"I gotta wee," Harry says standing up.

When he's gone Louis feels something buzzing on the table and notices Harry forgot his phone. He taps on it and he sees it's a message from Gemma.

"you can't avoid our talk about your crush tomorrow, styles"

Uh.

When Harry comes back, Louis starts talking to Niall about the waitress again and out of the corner of his eye he catches the sight of Harry wearing a troubled expression after reading Gemma's message and sees that he starts tapping an answer, his fingers moving fast.

 

When they get back to the hotel, Louis goes straight into Harry's room with him.

"So."

"So."

"What you told the interviewer the other day was a lie."

"Hmm?"

"You said you were single and that you weren't looking for anyone."

Harry raises an eyebrow, "If I remember correctly, I think you were the one that said it."

"Yeah, well, you didn't correct me afterwards."

Harry shrugs.

"So you do have a crush on someone, am I right, Harold?" Louis asks, paying close attention to Harry's reaction because honestly, he can't lie to save his life.

"Um."

Fuck.

Louis doesn't know which girl Harry is crushing on but he knows he doesn't like her already. Or maybe it's actually a boy because Louis remembers that even though Harry has been exclusively with girls since then, he and Louis used to fool around back when they were on the X-Factor. It was nothing serious actually, but some nights they would snuggle together in one of their beds and they'd end up kissing. Other times they did it because it was fun knowing they were making out in a bathroom and that anyone could catch them at it. There were handjobs here and there, and that one time Harry blowed him a little too desperate, always so eager to please.

But then, after the show finished and they realized the band had actual chances of going somewhere, they had mutually agreed to stop this friends-with-benefits thing they had, to go back and be just friends.

The thing was, Louis couldn't actually go back to that so easily, but when he noticed Harry had been able of doing it, he had decided to try to keep his feelings at bay. Louis' plan had actually proved being quite effective but the last week had showed him how easily it was to fall back into this. Fall back into Harry.

"Do you... err—" Louis mumbles awkwardly, "do y'wanna tell me about it?"

Harry looks away, "No, but I will... eventually."

Louis frowns. Harry used to trust him with everything.

His expression must have shown hurt so Harry was quick to add, "It's nothing personal, Lou, really, I'm not mad at you or whatever. It's just that uh, I think... I haven't even like, assumed I like them myself, y'know."

Louis nods, "Yeah I get it," but deep down he knows he'll find out the next day when he spends it with Gemma.

 

~

 

The following day Louis wakes up feeling really anxious because he probably will find out Harry's crush in a couple of hours.

He tries to move Harry's curls from his face, but he realizes that oh they're gone.

Is Harry going fucking bald is his first thought.

Then he yawns and realizes that didn't sound like Harry at all.

"Hello," oh great.

Fucking great.

Just when being in Harry's body could start being a little useful, it ends.

He stands in front of the mirror, feeling a sort of disappointed without knowing why. It's like switching bodies with Harry had been some kind of opportunity the universe had given him and he had thrown it away.

It feels so weird to have his own body again after he had started getting used to having Harry's.

He gets out of his room and knocks on Liam's room, the only one who's probably awake so early.

"I'm coming! I'm coming!"

Louis waits patiently and when the door is opened, he's faced with Liam's blinding smile, looking too happy for this time of the day.

"Let's prank Louis," Louis suggests.

Liam smiles mischievously, "Okay."

Louis hits him in the head. "Wrong answer!" he says in his quickfire-host voice.

Liam stares at him wide eyed, "Louis?"

"Duh," Louis rolls his eyes, "I can't believe you said yes, Liam, I thought we were friends but turns out you're just a traitor."

Just when Liam's about to answer, Harry pokes out of his room.

"Louis, I'm me."

"Eloquent as always dear Harold," Louis answers, his eyes glued to the sight in front of him and fuck had he missed this.

It was quite nice to speak to Harry without having his own face staring back at him.

Then Harry starts running towards him and Louis doesn't even move away because he wants to touch Harry again cause he looks really happy and they have the whole fucking floor for them and, oh Harry is going to hug him and it's not like Louis is going to say no.

Harry wraps his arms around him and Louis can't fucking breathe but he's never felt this good in his whole life.

"Thank you," Harry whispers in his ear and Louis doesn't know what to answer because, thanks for what?

Liam joins the hug quickly as another door is pulled open.

"Oh, are we having a group hug?" Niall asks and he wraps his arms around them.

"Wait, where's Zayn? It doesn't feel right if he's not here as well," Liam says.

"He's too cool for us," Louis jokes.

"Shut up," he hears Zayn saying as a new pair of arms join the cuddle.

A few seconds pass by until Niall asks, "Why are we even hugging anyway?"

"Because I'm Harry," Harry says.

Louis hears Zayn muttering 'dumbest shit I've ever heard', but none of them pull away.

 

Louis feels really nervous during the rest of the day and the fact that he has nothing to do makes it all worse. It's usually easy to find a distraction when they have to do so many things that they don't even have time left to think. Things like signing autographs, rehearsals, or interviews, which Louis hates but feels like he needs at the moment.

He starts tidying up his hotel room and packing his bags, because they're supposed to be at the bus really early the next morning. It works, for a while, and time goes fast while he leaves the floor free of his clothes.

Then he decides to check if the other boys can help him distract himself.

He thinks about Liam but decides against it when he realizes he is probably at the gym.

Louis goes to Zayn's room then, and when he welcomes him Louis just mutters 'movie time' as he enters. Zayn follows him wordlessly and sits next to him in front of the huge TV. He had bought a couple of dvds at the gas station the other night and he makes Louis pick one.

Half an hour into the movie, Louis finds himself bored and without being able of even remembering the title of the film.

He looks at Zayn's sketches scattered around all over the floor and the coffee table and suddenly feels jealous of him. Drawing is something that distracts Zayn and makes him happy at the same time and Louis wishes he had something like that. Everytime Zayn has a piece of paper in front of him he likes to draw all over it. Louis enjoys staring at him while he's at it because his face goes softer somehow. Relaxed maybe.

He's so deep in thought that he doesn't even notice the TV had been turned off.

"Louis," Zayn speaks quietly, "just spit it out."

And this is what always happens with Zayn. He's more perceptive than people give him credit for and Louis can't ever get away with it. He doesn't even make up some bullshit story because he knows it's useless with Zayn.

"Harry likes someone."

And that seems to be enough for Zayn because he turns on the TV again without saying anything. He is now giving Louis the chance of not talking about it but Louis finds himself speaking again.

"It's like," he begins, "he used to tell me everything... I don't understand why he won't tell me this."

Zayn raises an eyebrow, "Is that all you're worried about?"

Louis takes a deep breath, "And I may be also worried because of who it might be." Zayn nods, motioning for him to keep talking. "And I may be worried about it not being me."

That's when Zayn gives him a congratulatory smile, like he had been waiting for Louis to say exactly that. This kind of thing is what has made him and Zayn so close. He simply has the ability of understanding and being understood with fewer words than the rest. And generally, Louis is not really good with words. Not when they're serious.

That's also the reason Louis suspected Zayn had always known. Right at the beginning, when Louis had decided to quit nightclubs because he was scared of seeing Harry with someone else, Liam and Niall used to insist everytime Louis said 'no' to them, but Zayn was always the one that invited him over or asked him if he wanted to go somewhere quiet.

"Thank you," Louis says squeezing Zayn's leg softly.

"You're the one that did the job here," he tells him seriously.

Louis rolls his eyes, "Shut up, Buddha."

"That didn't even make sense."

"I know."

 

A couple of hours later Louis starts playing some football with Niall at the hotel and he is finally able of getting Harry out of his mind for a while.

He kicks the ball like he was playing a real match and at some point when he looks up, he notices the sky looks definitely darker than earlier. He also realizes Niall is panting with his head down and his hands resting on his knees. They look dirty and Niall's face is a lot redder than usual.

"I give up," he says, "that was too much."

Louis hadn't noticed how fast the time had passed by and he starts feeling pain in his feet and also notices his t-shirt soaked up with sweat.

Once he gets back to his hotel room he calls room service, takes a quick shower and eats dinner on bed.

He brushes his teeth and lies down for a bit.

His leg muscles are sore and he feels really tired. He thinks he'll probably get asleep quickly after playing for so long.

Turns out he was wrong because no matter how hard he tries, there's just no way for him to get some sleep. He grabs his phone from the bedside table and curses when he sees the time. It's 3am and he knows he should be taking advantage of his last night in a hotel for a few days.

He logs into twitter and checks Harry's account. When he sees his last tweet had been just seven minutes ago he shoots him a short text telling him he's going to his room.

Louis goes out to the hall and smiles when he notices Harry's door is opened for him.

After entering, he lies down on the bed next to Harry.

"Couldn't sleep," he murmurs.

"Me neither," Harry answers, his eyes still on his phone.

Harry looks really beautiful when he's looking down, Louis notices. (It's not like he's about to tell Harry that obviously. He's not that cheesy).

"You're staring."

"Sorry, you're just so beautiful," Louis says dryly.

Harry smiles at him and Louis thinks there's no way he doesn't notice what he's doing to Louis.

"Wanna try to sleep here?" Harry asks.

"Yeah, no," because as tempting as it sounds Louis actually came here for a reason, "I want to talk."

"Sure," Harry shrugs as he sits up in front of Louis, "what'd y'wanna talk about then?"

Louis coughs and looks away, "Who are you crushing on?"

"Louis," Harry sighs.

"I don't understand why you don't want to tell me, do you not trust me anymore?"

Harry looks at him with disbelief, "Of course not Lou I—"

"Then why won't you tell me?"

Harry chews on his bottom lip, "Because."

"Is it someone I don't like? Is it...? Do I even know them?"

Harry swallows, "Yes, you know him."

Him.

Louis feels his heart racing in his chest. He knows Harry probably isn't in love with him but he also knows that all that there is in his head at that moment is what if what if what if and fuck there's no way he'll ever feel okay again if he doesn't find out who it is.

"I know him as in I've met him or I know him like I know you?" Louis asks carefully.

Harry bites the inside of his cheek, "You know him better than anyone."

Okay.

After that Louis makes Harry lay back against the bed, he sits on his thighs and Harry just watches. Louis leans in until their lips are just a breath away from each other and when he notices Harry doesn't stop him and closes his eyes, Louis smiles in triumph, feeling like he's about to burst.

"I knew it," he says, pulling back a little.

But Harry's hands find the back of his head and tug him closer, "Shut the fuck up," is the last thing he says before kissing Louis.

The kiss is surprisingly tender compared to the ones they used to share on the X-Factor. Louis pulls away after a few seconds and both stare into each other's eyes like making sure this is happening.

Harry gives him a reassuring smile and that's all Louis needs to duck forward again. This time the kiss is more heated, and Louis grinds down once, just to see Harry's reaction, and he grins when Harry throws his head back letting out a groan.

He starts trailing kisses down his neck, keeping up his small thrusts that are slowly driving Harry insane.

Harry's hands go from his hair to his waist, and he slides them down Louis' t-shirt, running them up and down his sides, which makes Louis laugh into Harry's mouth just when he was about to start kissing him again.

"Sorry," Louis says pecking Harry's lips once, "that tickles."

"That totally ruined the mood," Harry says, trying to sound disappointed, but Louis can see his dimple and the smile he is trying to hide.

"Shut up," he says, biting Harry's cheek softly.

"Is this the kind of thing you do after making out with someone? Wow, no wonder you're single mate," Harry teases him.

"You're dumb," Louis tells him, "I'm glad I came here though, I would've probably felt sexually frustrated for the rest of my life."

Harry chuckles, "What do you mean?"

"Well, there's only a number of times one can jerk off to the thought of you coming."

"Same here."

"You fucker, I told you you weren't allowed to watch."

"I didn't." Harry says, smirking "But you didn't say anything about recording though."

"You're a fucking bastard." Louis says staring at him fondly.

**Author's Note:**

> thanks for reading :)


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